Merriam-Webster previously added bitcoin in 2016 as “a digital currency created for use in peer-to-peer online transactions.” The decision came after the “perplexing domain of digital financial exchanges” required a thorough understanding of words in the crypto community.

On the other hand, Oxford Dictionary, recognized bitcoin as early as 2013. The official blog post read, “Technology remains a catalyst for emerging words and is reflected in new entries.” Two years later, the website announced that it had added ‘blockchain’ as well as ‘miners’ in the new list of words.

Miner is defined as:

Merriam-Webster also replied to questions asking whether the words were added to Collegiate or Unabridged.

Cryptocurrency was able to meet a well-defined criteria before securing a place in the dictionary, “To be included in a Merriam-Webster dictionary, a word must be used in a substantial number of citations that come from a wide range of publications over a considerable period of time. Specifically, the word must have enough citations to allow accurate judgments about its establishment, currency, and meaning.”